I need to announce today that we will not be publishing FantasyGuru.com Magazine this year. I’m not going to rule out bringing the magazine back, but for the past five years the publication’s been more of a luxury than a necessity, and for a variety of reasons it’s not nearly as viable now as it’s been in the past.

Rest assured, we’re as strong as ever as a company and this move has nothing to do with our future prospects in this industry.

The main issue is that the company we’ve worked with publishing the magazine was sold, and it’s been apparent to me for quite some time the company that is now running the show has little or no interest in continuing to work with us (they have not contacted me regarding the mag). That’s certainly their prerogative, and the fact is I haven’t been beating down their door to work with us again, either, nor have I taken the time to try to find another company to help us publish and get the magazine on the newsstand. Working with a company like we have is needed because, for one, it’s not exactly easy to publish a single title a year and get it on the newsstands. Had the status quo been in place this year in terms of working with this company, the costs, etc., I certainly would have continued to do the magazine.

But that’s not the case, and honestly the magazine hasn’t been profitable for five years. So while it’s a buzz kill not having it this year, I don’t think going out of my way to continue to produce a loss leader is a wise move at this juncture. Most likely, if we were to work with another company, the costs would go up, so we’d lose even more revenue. Publishing the magazine was also a real strain on us for about two months, and a lot of the effort was wasted because a lot of the content in the mag is out of date by the time it hits the stands. As I stated above, it’s really been a luxury for us, and in today’s economic environment, luxuries tend to go away in business.

We’ll continue to produce content in the spring and early summer like we always do, but without the effort needed for the magazine there won’t be that dead period in May and early June when we’re too consumed with the production of the magazine and can’t put out as much regular content. Plus, like a RB who’s had minimal carries, we’ll be “fresher” when the preseason and season is upon us.

I’m sorry to disappoint those who liked having a tangible piece from us in the form of the magazine, but there are always tough decisions to be made in business, and I’ve made one here. I’m bummed too, especially since I mentioned doing the magazine for ten years in the debut issue’s editor’s letter. We made it only seven years.

But as I’ve always said about the magazine: we’re simply just a website that has a magazine. Now we’re just a website – and that’s what we’ve really always been.

18 Responses

Online content is so much better anyway…….and for the record, its not just a website……..Its a football information buffet. . Ok enough sucking-up. Im not seeing very much love for Addai. He’s not even mentioned in the team write-up. Is D.Brown going to make that much of a leap this year…. just a thought.

Oh, little early to say we’re not giving someone enough love. We’ll have Addai higher than Brown, that’s for sure. And that they want to be bigger up front could work out for him a little bit. Thanks for the positive thoughts.

Good move John. Better to pour all your efforts into the website. Honestly, I wondered why you put out a magazine, when its so much easier to use this site for drafting and fantasy knowledge for me and probably most anyone. Its a technological age, and magazines are just not what they used to be since you can access almost any magazines contents online. Damn, I am ready for some football!!

I’ve haven’t bought a football magazine, for my use, since I started subscribing ito this site. I don’t even know how many years thats been. Now my buddy in the state pen – he ain’t gunna be so happy. So what, like you said your web content is current.

Yeah, we’re not making many friends among the incarcerated. I can give you a little tidbit on last year: Aaron Rodgers was my first choice, but the Packers broke my balls about connecting with him, so I moved on to my second choice of MJD.

I’m sure a lot of people will be sorry to see the mag go but, in this economic environment, it’s definitely the right call at the right time. At this point, I plan on subscribing to the site for the first time. Do you happen to make your player rankings and other articles that are posted on the website printer friendly? This could go a long way towards satisfying those that prefer to read things magazine style as opposed to right off the computer screen. Just a suggestion in case you do not already do this.

Darn, I was looking forward to defending my 2009 FantasyGuru.com Subscriber Showcase Championship. But all the points you bring up are valid. I want to thank you, John, for having me in the magazine. It was my “15 minutes of fame”.

John, you hit the problem-nail on the head when you said the magazine was out of date when it hit the stands. Magazines are just largely ineffective for Fantasy Football analysis when one key preseason injury can jumble not only a player’s position rankings but drag down-or elevate-his teammates as well. For any FFB player I believe a magazine is only useful to a newer player who is not yet familiar enough with the number of NFL players it takes to execute a FFB draft. Even then, such a player can get up-to-date rankings free from several well-known websites. I never bought the magazine, having subscribed to your website for 5 years now I just never needed it. I appreciate your angst about it though. I’m sure it was well done in execution, but for any more seldom than weekly FFB analysis, the print medium just isn’t well suited to the task.

Zack: Good point, perhaps they can have a scene where they alternate between a porn site and fantasyguru.com.

Eric: Nice job winning the league. We’ll still do a showcase league and you can play in it as returning champ. We’ll be in touch in August.

Nathan: The one thing I liked about it was it was a good thing for people to get caught up in July and ready for all the preseason stuff. But overall, so far I’m not missing being under the gun from the mag.